The Serpent's Wings
by Shoshana Spring
Summary: Draco Malfoy hates Harry Potter, but when he comes into an unexpected creature inheritance while wrapped in the arms of his lover everything in Draco's life changes.
1. Chapter 1

"Watch where you're going Potter!" Draco sneered. He had just been bumped into by the loathsome Golden Boy of Griffindor House. Draco hated Harry Potter. He hated everything about him from his careless good looks, to his popularity (Though everyone thinking he was a nutter for proclaiming that the Dark Lord was back seemed to be keeping his popularity in check.) , and even to his messy mop of hair on the top of his goody-two-shoes head.

Harry's sparkling green eyes were narrow slits of hatred as they pierced Draco like knives. "You watch where you're going ferret face!"

"I was, and I always do! It is you who was so busy rummaging through your bag that you didn't have time to look up and see us." Draco sneered.

"Well, if you were looking where you were going, and you knew I wasn't, then you bumped into me on purpose." Harry said triumphantly.

"And why would I do a stupid thing like that? Why would I go out of my way to make contact with a dirty little half blood?" Draco said smoothly flicking imaginary dirt from the end of his sleeve.

"How should I know what goes on in a death eaters brain? Just stay away from me you evil freak!" Harry said having had enough of this conversation. He was running late to class anyways. And he still hadn't found his homework for Snape's class. He had even done it this time! He had stayed up most of the night working on it, and now he wasn't going to be able to find it and turn it in! Why did everything always have to happen to him? Now, on top of everything, he was going to be late to class because Draco Malfoy of all people decided to pick a fight with him in the hallway.

Draco smirked and flicked his wand at Harry's bag. The clasp on his messenger bag came undone and his books and parchment spilled everywhere onto the stone floor. "See you in class, Potter." Draco said stepping over the other boy who had immediately gotten down on his knees and started shoveling his belongings back in his bag.

Draco Malfoy was an exceedingly arrogant, stubborn, self-centered, devilishly handsome, brat. He quite liked this persona that he had painstakingly crafted for himself over the last four years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was the Slytherin Prince. The evil son of the Dark Lord's right hand. It was good to be the Prince. He was the most intelligent and most charismatic member of his class in his house. He deserved to be the Prince. He was the son of a Lord after all, ruling was in his blood. No matter whether he was ruling over the peasant class or simply his year mates at school, at least he was ruling.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Hermione and Ron walked around the corner and stopped their argument mid sentence when they saw Harry on the floor shoving parchment into his bag.

"Harry! What happened?!" Hermione exclaimed. She bent down to help and muttered, "We are going to be late to Proffessor Snape's as it is."

"Malfoy, that's what happened." Harry muttered back.

"Well, I think it's a pity we're not trying for a bit of inter-House unity," said Hermione crossly. She had been lecturing them about getting along with Slytherins ever since the sorting hat's unexpected song at the welcoming feast.

"If that means we're supposed to get matey with the Slytherins, fat chance." Ron scoffed, "look what Malfoy just did to poor Harry." Ron ruffled Harry's hair teasingly.

"Stop it, Ron." Harry groaned. "Yeah, we really ought to be trying to make friends with people like the ferret," said Harry sarcastically to Hermione, picking up the last of his things and starting to walk down the hallway, two thirds of the golden trio behind him.

"Anyways, Hermione, you can't ask us to try and play nice on a day like today." Ron said mournfully as they walked further down the dungeon corridor. "Look at today!" groaned Ron. "We have just come from History of Magic, and it was dreadful as ever. Now we have to suffer through double Potions. Then if we survive that Harry and I have to run all the way to the tower for Divination with the bat lady. AND if that weren't enough we then have double Defense Against the Dark Arts with the toad woman . . . Binns, Snape, Trelawney, and that Umbridge woman all in one day! I wish Fred and George'd hurry up and get those Skiving Snackboxes sorted. . . ."

Then said Harry grumpily, "That's the worst Monday I've ever seen." He flashed sad puppy dog eyes at his bushy haired friend, but only received a thoroughly unsympathetic look in response.

The trio walked the rest of the way to the classroom talking about what Snape was likely to set them in the first lesson of the year. They had all agreed that it was likely to be something extremely difficult, just to catch them off guard after a two-month holiday.

They joined the queue lining up outside Snape's classroom door. After a moment they heard the

ominous sound of Snape's dungeon door creaking open and the class filed inside. Harry followed his friends to their usual table at the back. At the front of the classroom he could see a oily head of platinum blonde hair that made Harry want to learn how to blow a proper spitball.

"Settle down," said Snape coolly. Harry watched as the professors trademark black billowing robes swirled as he shut the door behind him. Harry remarked that there really was no need for the professor to call for silence. The class had heard the door close and immediately quieted down. It was gratifying to know that he was far from the only one to find the dungeon bat scary, though he would never admit it to anyone. Harry thought of Neviel's bogart and reasoned that he might find Snape scary, but some students were down right paralyzed with fear of the man.

"Before we begin today's lesson," said Snape, sweeping over to his desk and staring around at them all, "I think it appropriate to remind you that next June you will be sitting an important examination, during which you will prove how much you have learned about the composition and use of magical potions. Moronic though some of this class undoubtedly are, I expect you to scrape an 'Acceptable' in your O.W.L., or suffer my . . . displeasure."

Harry watched as Snape's gaze lingered on Neville, who gulped. Harry found in himself a rather different reaction. Something was different about Snape's voice. It seemed . . . silkier . . . smoother. . . The way he held out his 'S's . . .

"After this year, of course, many of you will cease studying with me," Snape went on. "I take only the very best into my N.E.W.T. Potions class, which means that some of us will certainly be saying good-bye." His eyes rested on Harry and his lip curled. Harry felt heat raising in his chest. He tried desperately not to blush. To make certain that he hadn't just been found out for having been thinking about his Professor's silky voice, Harry glared back.

Snape's voice went on to lecture them about maintaining high grades in his class. Harry had a hard time paying attention. Hermione must have seen his eyes glazing over because she kicked him under the table. "Owe!" Harry angrily whispered to his clever classmate. Harry saw Draco swivel around in his chair at Harry's outburst. He glared at the blond. Hermione nudged him in the ribs. Harry looked at her and she nodded back towards the front of the classroom at Snape and gave him a pointed look.

"Today we will be mixing a potion that often comes up at Ordinary Wizarding Level: the Draught of Peace, a potion to calm anxiety and soothe agitation. Be warned: If you are too heavy-handed with the ingredients you will put the drinker into a heavy and sometimes irreversible sleep, so you will need to pay close attention to what you are doing." On Harry's left, Hermione sat up a little straighter, her expression one of the utmost attentiveness. "The ingredients and method" — Snape flicked his wand — "are on the blackboard" — (they appeared there) — "you will find everything you need" — he flicked his wand again — "in the store cupboard" — (the door of the said cup- board sprang open) — "you have an hour and a half. . . . Start."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione got to work on their potion. Just as they had assumed it would be, it was extremely difficult. It was made even more so when Draco tried to tip a jar of green slime into their cauldron. Hermione had luckily been quick enough to have levitated it away before it his the surface of their brew. She was also fast enough to stop Harry from slicing the Gorgon Hair when he was meant to mince it.

"A light silver vapor should now be rising from your potion," called Snape, with ten minutes left to go.

A silver vapor rose triumphantly from the surface of their potion. She had been fast enough to stop Harry. She had been fast enough to stop Draco. She was not fast enough to stop Gregory Goyle from dropping a newts eye in as he walked past there table on his way to the cupboard. The potion turned a dark charcoal gray and thick smoke started billowing around them.

Snape walked over to their table and sneered down at their potion. "And what is this supposed to be Miss Granger?"

"The Draught of Peace," said Harry tensely.

The lanky Professor turned to the mop headed student. He leaned over, loomed over, he almost vultured over Harry. "Tell me, Potter," said Snape softly, "can you read?"

Draco Malfoy laughed. He didn't even try to hide it. He laughed full out and patted Goyle on the back.

"Yes, I can," said Harry, his fingers clenched tightly around his wand.

"Then you should have pointed out to your partners that the newt eye was not required in this potion until the last 30 seconds." He sneered when Harry started to open his mouth to retort. He held up a finger, "10 points from Griffindor."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Draco was sitting in the Slytherin common room with his year mates playing a card game called Troll Hunter. The object was to suss out witch of the players was the hiding the troll card by asking for three cards at once. If a player had one of the three in their hand then they had to pass it to the hunter. The trick was that only one person had to answer the hunter and they only had to show him one card at a time even if they had all three. Eventually the players would form a mental inventory of each other's hands and discover who had a card that they were not passing. The remaining card was the troll. The hunter would then accuse the player of hiding the troll. If he was wrong however he would be out. It was a very Slytherin game. Draco, Blaise and Pansey liked it a lot.

It would have been a bit better, however if they could only convince Crab and Goyle NOT to play. It wasn't that the three didn't like them, it was just that they were truly awful at games that involved any level of . . . slyness. They lacked an ability to keep their proverbial cards close to their chests.

It was Draco's turn next. "A pixie, a skrewt, and a unicorn?" Draco asked. Pansy was sitting to his right. She shook her head and looked at Crab who was sitting to her right.

"Got a-" He received an elbow to his ribs before he could finish.

"Don't tell all of us, just pass Draco the card!" Pansy screeched.

"Right, sorry Pansy." Crab muttered. He passed Draco the card. It was a pixie. So that meant Crab had a pixie, a goblin, a werewolf, and a basilisk. There was only one yet undiscovered card in Crabs hand, but Draco doubted it was the troll. Crab always smiled like the moron that he was when he had the troll.

Then it was Pansy's turn. "Werewolf, mermaid, sphinx."

Crab handed her a card. She smiled and handed it back. It when on like that for awhile until Blaise said, "So, is Potter telling the truth?" He was fed up with never knowing anything. His family was neutral in the war and had never taken an interest in politics, not in twenty generations. They were artists and seers. His family had had potions masters and inventors, but not one politician in over three hundred years. That was impressive for a family as wealthy as the Zabinis. The rule against politics had kept them safe for generations but it also kept Blaise in the dark... Well not in THE DARK, but rather out of the loop as it were.

Draco and Pansy exchanged serious looks. Crab and Goyal knew better than to say a word about their fathers' involvement with the death eaters. "I thought you wanted to stay well out of it?" Draco said cautiously.

"I do...but ... Just tell me if its true. Is war about to break out?" Blaise asked. It was killing him not to know.

Draco and Pansy exchanged yet another look. Pansy nodded to Draco who threw up a privacy charm over their area of the common room. "Yes."

Blaise sunk in his chair. He looked like he was going to be sick. His dark skin paled considerably. The quiet boy didn't have the stomach for violence. Draco wondered if it had anything to do with his mother and her rapidly dieing string of husbands.

Blaise sat down his hand of cards and stood from his chair. "I think I'm going to go to bed, big day of classes tomorrow."

"Pansy has the troll." Draco said quickly and stood to run after his friend.

"You couldn't have possibly known that yet!" She screamed throwing her cards down face up revealing the troll.

"No, but either way I wanted to be out, winning is just a bonus." Draco said with a smirk. He hurried off to the fifth year boys dorm.

It was locked.

Draco nocked on the door.

No answer.

"Alohamora" He whispered into the door knob. He felt a soft click. If Blaise only just turned the dead bolt to lock the door , rather than throwing up wards, he either wasn't thinking clearly or he wanted Draco to find him.

"Blaise?" Draco asked softly opening the door slowly until he saw the beautiful dark skinned boy on the side of his bed. His head was in his hands. He was crying. Slytherins don't cry. Purebloods don't cry. "Blaise?" He repeated himself trying to get a reaction out of the other teen.

"I don't want you to die. You can't die. You can't leave me!" Blaise mumbled into his hands.

"I'm not going to die." Draco said reassuringly.

Blaise shook his head and sobbed harder. Draco threw up privacy and silencing charms quickly. "You will take the mark and fight along side your father." Blaise sobbed.

Draco sat down on the bed next to Blaise and nodded, "Yes."

Blaise lifted his head and stared into Draco's cool blue eyes, "Then you will die."

"I'm far to clever too die." Draco said with a smile.

Blaise shook his head. In a small voice he said, "My mum, she sees things."

Draco had heard rumors, but Blaise was so private. He never talked about his mother. "She is a seer?"

Blaise nodded, "She saw you die, you had the dark mark on your arm."

Draco wrapped an arm around him reassuringly. "Then I won't take the mark. I'm not going to leave you."

"Promise me you won't take the mark?" Blaise said looking up at the blond with watery eyes.

"I will do everything I can to avoid it." Draco said strategically.

"That's all I'm going to get, isn't it?" Blaise said with a sad smile.

"I'm afraid so." Draco kissed him softly on the lips. "Let's go to bed."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Authors note: My main story, Time's Children, is written about 50,000 to 100,000 words ahead of what I post. I post like this to give the reader some consistency in how frequently I post. It allows me to post multiple times a week weather I am crazy busy at work or have all the free time in the world. This will not be posted to the same caliber. This is going to be my fluff story, my side project, what I write when I can't think of anything to write for Time's Children. These chapters will likely be posted right after I write them. It could be days between chapters, it could be a month.

I do not have a beta for this story. There will undoubtedly be mistakes. For that I apologize. I do my best. If you as a reader find errors that are nagging at you, please private message me and tell me where the error is and what it should be corrected to, and I will make the change. Please do not review by saying "You're spelling is terrible. Get a beta." It is insensitive and unhelpful.

Thank you very much for reading my fluff piece. I hope it will be funny and light. Please enjoy and review.


	2. Chapter 2: Draco's Party

Author's note: I understand according to Potter-more Draco's birthday is in the summer. I am ignoring that to make this work.

~. ~. ~. ~. ~. ~. ~

It was Draco Malfoy's birthday. That special day that came every fall just after term started, when his two best friends and two best idiots managed to throw him a fabulous party in the dungeons. Slytherin parties were not the boisterous, roccus events that were held in the Gryffindor common room at the spur of the moment. Rather, they tended to either be refined and spilling over with contraband alcohol, or sexually charged dance parties fueled by illegal or experimental potions. Either way, they were fun. Draco always looked forward to his birthday, that was, he always looked forward to it after his second year. His first year he had been extremely disappointed when his parents hadn't sent him a single present. He didn't know if they had forgotten about his birthday, or if they had purposely been trying to force him to grow up now that he was in school by helping him to detach from childish rituals.

Ever since Pansy and Blaise had found Draco pouting in the first year boy's dorm that first fall, they had thrown him a party. Pansy always insisted that it be a surprise party. The surprise wasn't that there was going to be a party, but rather the theme of the party would be a surprise to Draco and Draco alone. Pansy loved throwing parties. She considered it training for her future life as a pureblood Lady and wife to a pureblood Lord. Though she knew that her intelligence and skill as a which would be useful in her life as a death eater, she also knew that the ability to throw a good party would be useful in her life as a wife. There was much political capital to be gained by being a renowned hostess or setting the perfect setting for her future husband's political dealings. It wasn't all ballgowns and place settings. It was the art of subtly manipulating your guest into giving you what you wanted, whether that was political favors or funding for a pet project or campaign.

It was Draco's birthday and they were sitting in the great hall eating lunch. Draco's heart had been beating with inpatients all day. He kept checking the time. Six hours to go. Six hours until he would finally know what insane concept Pansy and Blaise had come up with for his birthday party. They never went to so much effort for each other or for any of the other Slytherins in their year. Draco never wanted to bring up the hypocrisy of the amount of attention they showered him with. He knew from Blaise that it was out of genuine affection but he suspected from Pansy that she was only putting in the effort as a bid for a future marriage. Their parents had discussed the two of them being bound in marriage several, several times. Luckily, Narcissa, Draco's mother, had insisted that Draco be allowed to choose his bride after his 15th birthday, today. She had never said that he would be forced to marry at 15 or forced into a marriage contract at 15, but for some reason she had made it very clear that he wouldn't be able to enter into any marriage arrangement until after his 15th birthday. Draco's father had been surprisingly absent for most of these negotiations.

"It's killing me! Just tell me something, one thing. Anything that will give me a hint." Draco uncharacteristically begged Pansy who was sitting to his right and primly eating her salad without the slightest care in the world.

"I don't have to tell you anything. You are being impatient. You will find out in a few hours." Pansy said, lifting a fork full of spinach to her lips. The great hall was a feast every meal, every day, for the whole school year. It was a feast specifically designed for the male students. Lots of meat, lots of carbs, very few vegetables. Her mother had instructed her before she left for Hogwarts the first year that the food was there to tempt her, the food was there to turn her into her childhood friend Millicent, an oversized girl that had a voracious appetite and a physique similar to Crab's and Goyle's. She, instead of eating the sugar laden, fat filled, cream stuffed options had gone down to the kitchen elves and requested salads. Her requests were very specific. Her mother had provided her with a set of recipe cards with a variety of different tasty dishes in sensible proportions to give her a seemingly endless array of healthy options. The elves simply chose a recipe card at random for each meal and provided her with something that wouldn't destroy her figure. It was very important that she maintained her figure in her future life as a pureblood Lady.

"It's OK Draco. You can hold out. You do this every year. You're so excited for the surprise, and then just a couple hours before you crack. We promise: We won't tell you." Blaise said reassuringly patting Draco on the back. Though the two had been secretly dating for a year now, they were never outwardly affectionate in public. It wasn't that it was unseemly for a wizard to be romantically involved with another wizard, it was that it was unseemly for a wizard who is in negotiations on a marriage contract to be openly affectionate with anyone. Pureblood wizards were meant to save themselves for marriage. Though very few actually achieve this goal, the vast majority at least achieve the appearance of achieving the goal.

"But I want to go now! Just want classes to be over and to be able to go down to my party and start having fun. I don't want to go to Herbology. I never want to go to Herbology! Then! Then! I have Care of Magical Creatures with that stinking oaff! You know he tried to get me killed last year?! That monster he insisted on letting loose on us poor students." Pansy and Blaise raised eyebrows at Draco's remarks.

"Draco, not to contradict you on your birthday, but you know full well that you didn't show the proper respect to Buckbeak. You were just trying to get Hagrid fired. You don't need to tow the lie with us." Blaise said with 'a look'.

Draco looks slightly sheepish, "Right, sorry. Sometimes I get so used to the story that I forget when you're in on it or not." His two companions laughed.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting in the Great Hall as well. Ron and Harry both had heaping piles of meat and potatoes on their plates, but Hermione had restrained herself to modest portions. She may not have a future as a high lady like Pansy, but if she was ever going to get Ron to notice her, she would have to do a bit more than just nag him about his homework. She really couldn't understand how he had failed to notice her until the ball last winter. Now it was her mission to get her clueless friend to realize that they belonged together. Not in a sappy way, they just made sense. He needed someone like her in his life to keep him in line and she needed someone like him to remind her to have fun. They were perfect. Now if only she could get the prat to realize it.

"What's wrong Ron? You look like you have something to say." Harry asked between bites of chicken.

Ron looked to Hermione who shook her head. He gave her a look that seemed to say 'come on, he's asking' and received a kick under the table for his troubles. He puffed out his cheeks and said in retaliation, " Hermione thinks it would be nice if you stopped taking out your temper on us,"

Harry looked incredulous, "I'm not —"

"I'm just passing on the message," said Ron, talking over him. Then when he received another kick under the table he added, "But I reckon she's right. It's not our fault how Seamus and Dean treat you." The two dorm-mates had been giving Harry a hard time about Harry insisting that You-Know-Who was back. They had been avoiding him, whispering behind his back, and even outright insulting him. It was starting to really get on Harry's nerves.

"I never said it —" Harry insisted.

"It doesn't really matter. Just know that Ron and I are your friends, not your therapist. They are just being irrational and naïve. They don't want you-know-who to have come back, so they are taking it out on you. If they make you look crazy, then it didn't really happen. You should just ignore them. They don't really matter anyways. Focus on studying for your O.W.L.s." Hermione said primly. The tone in her voice on the last sentence made it very clear that the discussion was over, and that she would not be entertaining his marose complaints about Seamus and Dean any longer.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Classes were finally over. Draco was a ball of giddy nerves. He practically skipped on his way down from Care of Magical Creatures. Though, he didn't actually, outwardly skip at all. It was more of a brisk walk. Despite the past two class periods filled with constant pestering, he had been unsuccessful in getting a single clue out of Pansy or Blaise. He always wanted to get the secret out of them prior to the party, but he was always grateful that they hadn't told him by the time he got there. He really did love surprises.

Draco had reached the stone wall that was the ever so inconspicuous entrance to the Slytherin dorms. "Unicorn's blood" Draco said to the wall, giving the password. The stone wall sometimes slid open, other times it vanished, this time it seemed to shimmer. Draco walked through the illusion of the wall. It really was a wonderful door. Far less conspicuous than some babbling overweight woman.

When he found himself on the other side of the wall he was greeted with a green smoke, no not smoke, a fog, a thick mist that hung over the entire room making things difficult to see. The floor beneath him was shaking slightly with the pulsing vibrations of the music being played. Then slowly there were lights. First he saw one light in the distance flashing, it was joined by another, and another, and then the mist was filled with an array of flashing, shooting, and strobe lights in an array of green and silver. Blaise had really outdone himself. The boy would someday be a Charms Master. For now he was lavishing his gift on Draco, creating this amazing setting for his party.

Draco walked further into the mist and started to see silhouettes of bodies. The whole house had turned up it seemed. Everyone had stripped off their outer robes to dance. It was going to be one hell of a party.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Three hours and at least six drinks later Draco managed to pull Blaise into the fifth year boy's dorm. "I've been wanting to get you to myself all night." Draco said possessively pulling Blaise to him by his half undone tie.

Their chests were touching now. Draco's hands were fumbling with the buttons of the other boys shirt. "Did you like the party?" Blaise asked in a heady, horse whisper.

Draco's skilled hands had managed to get half the buttons opened on Blaise's shirt, several inches of smooth skin were revealed. "It was perfect, nothing like last years." Draco said sliding a palm up to the newly exposed skin. Blaise wasn't overly muscular, nor particularly athletic, but he managed a carefree lean form without any visible effort.

Blaise let out a breath as the cool dungeon air hit his skin. The combination of the air and Draco's warm, roaming hands gave him goose bumps. "Well, you can only do a indoor fireworks display once or it really loses the effect." Blaise said with a smile. Last year he had conjured fire dragons that danced around the common room for hours and blew alcohol infused smoke at the guests.

Blaise had started responding to Draco rather than simply reacting. His hands were forcefully pressed on the blond's hips, his fingertips pressing into the smaller teens back. Draco held back a groan. He was starting to notice the heady-ness he was feeling. He suspected that he might be being influenced by something other than just alcohol. "Is there anything I should know about the smoke out there?"

Blaise's lips were inches away from Draco's neck when he said, "It's euphoria inducing."

Draco shivered and let out a breath. His eyes closed as he threw his head back and exposed his neck. "I thought there might have been something. It's rare to see Pansy quite so… Bubbly." Draco mumbled as he fought back a moan.

A tongue ran up the length of Draco's neck. "You liked it?" Blaise asked in a teasing voice.

For a second Draco didn't know to what he was referring. Regardless the answer was yes. He liked it all, the party, the smoke, and... Oh Merlin! He liked whatever the other boy was doing to his ear now. "I already said I did." Draco managed to get out after he felt a tongue flick his earlobe playfully.

"Yeah, but I like hearing you say it." Blaise whispered. It was amazing how such a quiet, unassuming boy could be so... so dominate, so uninhibited behind closed doors. They had started up after Draco had come back to the dorms in frustration after a quidditch defeat at the end of their third year. Gryffindor had won 230-20. Draco had been blasting holes in the dungeon walls and Blaise had gone to calm him down. Blaise had locked the two of them in the third year boys dorm and after Draco got his frustration out on a couple of conjured pillow dummy's with lightning bolts stitched to their foreheads, they had talked. They talked for hours until the other boys figured out how to get through Blaise's wards. They had apparently had to ask a sixth year to help. Blaise really was very good at charms.

"You are such an attention whore." Draco teased with a soft chuckle.

Blaise flicked his wand and vanished Draco's shirt to his trunk. "Yeah, and what kind of attention can you offer me?"

Draco smiled. "I don't know if it's the smoke, or all the drinks Pansy kept encouraging me to swallow, but I think we should throw up some privacy charms. I have a feeling you're about to give me a birthday present."

"Oh, am I?" Blaise said raising an eyebrow.

"Yes."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Their clothing mostly discarded, their room heavily warded against any of their classmates that might want to go to sleep, Draco and Blaise laid wrapped in each other's arms. After the flirting and the heat, there was always this. This was Draco's favorite part. That quiet moment when he knew that there was someone who really cared about him. There was someone who wanted him, wanted to be with him. Draco cast Tempest and saw that it was only minutes before his birthday was over. He was fifteen.

11:55

This was the year his mother had said he would have to start getting serious about arranging a marriage.

11:58

He wondered if his father would ever approve of Blaise. It was a good match. They were both from wealthy families. The problem was they were both their parents only male heirs. Only children actually. The families would have to merge. One of them would have to give up their name. Neither family would ever agree to that.

12:00

The room suddenly filled with light.


	3. Chapter 3: After the Party

Harry Potter woke up. He had been having the strangest dream. He had been flying over the grounds on his broomstick and then out of nowhere a dragon had been flying along side him. They nearly missed the side of the north tower as they took a sharp turn and started flying towards the lake. Then the dragon shifted. It's leathery wings grew feathers. They flew closer to the water. It's massive body became smaller and smaller. They were just above the surface of the water and Harry could see the creature next to him transforming in the rippling reflection. Scales retracted into skin. Harry was no longer flying next to a dragon, but an angel.

Then, very abruptly, he woke up.

He looked at Ron's watch on the nightstand between their beds. It was just past midnight.

He hated this. It was the he middle of the night and he was wide awake. He didn't think that he could fall back asleep if he laid there for the next six hours, perfectly still. He climbed out of bed, walked over to the bathroom door and went to the sink. Staring at his reflection he decided that if he was going to be up, he might as well make some use out of the night. He splashed some water on his face and headed down to the common room to work on his transfiguration essay.

Harry found that he was having a hard time concentrating. He kept thinking about his dream. It was times like this that he wished that they had a halfway decent teacher for Divination. They were learning about the interpretation of dreams in class but...Professor Trelawney considered her subject above such trivial things as explanation. She had had then divide into pairs and use The Dream Oracle, their textbook, to interpret each other's most recent dreams.

Harry and Ron had merely looked at each other glumly.

"I never remember my dreams," said Ron. "You say one."

"You must remember one of them," said Harry impatiently.

At the time he had not wanted to share his dream with anyone. He didn't need to. He knew exactly what his regular nightmare about a graveyard meant.

He pulled out the stupid The Dream Oracle and flipped to the index. It didn't take him long to find the passage on Dragons.

"The Dragon is often the protector of treasure with the TREASURE representing YOU. It can represent fears that have to be overcome before recognizing the true self. Often it can be the guardian of the subjects innermost secrets."

Well , that didn't seem particularly helpful. He flipped to the page on flying.

"It is important to know what direction you were flying in. Where you flying upwards, downwards or backwards? If you are flying upwards in your dream that suggests you are now on a new level spiritually. If you were flying downwards you are trying to get more attuned to your unconscious. If you are flying low to the ground it represents strength and determination in your life. If you are flying backwards, that suggests you want to relive the past and the good memories you experienced."

No help there. He had been flying high, and low… fast, and slow. He was always going forwards though.

He tossed the book back down. What was the point? It was just a dream. It didn't mean anything. Sure, it was weird, but dreams were weird sometimes.

He pulled out his scroll of parchment he had been scribbling on over the last few nights. Professor Trelawney had set them the task of keeping a dream diary for a month as homework. At least this would be one entry he wouldn't have to make up.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The following day dawned just as gloomy and rainy as the previous one. Harry watched as Ron and Hermione emerged from their respective dorms. Hermione came down first of course. Harry had managed to catch a few hours of sleep here and there on the couch. He hadn't wanted to wake the other boys up and risk having to deal with Seamus and Dean accusing him of trying to murder them in their sleep.

The upside to his restless night was that he had actually managed to get Snape's essay on the properties of moonstone done. He had borrowed Hermione's notes that she had left out the night before. It wasn't like her to leave things out but she had been really worked up after Fred and George passed out their experimental candies. She was just about as upset with them over the WWW as she was at the whole of Wizarding Kind over the treatment of the house elves. She had even taken to leaving out knitted hats for them, though they didn't really look much like hats.

Once all three of them were ready, Ron taking the longest by far, they headed down for breakfast. Hagrid was still absent from the staff table. Harry was starting to get really worried about that. The trouble was, there didn't seem to be anything he could do about it.

That day they had double Charms and double Transfiguration. Both Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall lectured their classes on the importance of their upcoming O.W.L.s.

At lunch Harry, Ron and Hermione got into a heated debate about whether the Slytherins would be lining up to be death eaters or whether they would wait until after they graduated.

"Well, it's not likely that anyone in our year would even have time, what with the O.W.L. exams at the end of term."

"Do you really think that Voldemort cares what the death eaters get on their O.W.L.s?" Ron said with a look that made it clear to Hermione that he thought she was a nutter.

"Well, maybe not, but their parents would want them to have decent careers." Hermione said in defense of herself. She crossed her arms over her chest and nodded to herself.

"It doesn't really matter anyways. Whether they take the Dark Mark now, or wait, they're going to eventually. I bet Malfoy can hardly wait. I bet he has been begging his father to take him to his master to get marked." Harry said looking over at the Slytherin table. He had been attempting to glare at the back of Malfoy's head when he realized that it was inexplicably absent. He looked up and down the table. Not a sign of Malfoy anywhere. That was odd. The blonde was not known for missing meals. It wasn't that he had a particular obsession with food or anything, he just liked the chance to… socialize with the other snakes. "Where is Malfoy?" Harry asked.

"Who cares? Maybe he is sick and we won't have to deal with his smarmy arse this afternoon in class." Ron said while chewing a mouthful of dinner roll.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Draco was in fact in the hospital wing. Though, he was not sick. Madame Pomphrey made it very clear to him that he was under no circumstances suffering from an ailment of any kind. He had not been poisoned, he was not under the influence of a spell, nor any curse that she could think of. Yet, he had long scaly wings protruding from between his shoulder blades.

At first, he had been scared, not that he had admitted it to anyone, but when the Medi–Witch had persisted in asserting that he was not sick, and that this was perfectly natural, he had become quite irate. She had asked him what he had been doing when the wings had appeared. He had of course replied that he had been studying. Draco reasoned that it was none of her business what he did in the privacy of his dorm room behind temporary wards. She raised an eyebrow at that. Draco was absolutely not going to tell the middle-aged mother hen of a woman about his sex life. Really, what could it possibly have to do with giant scaly wings popping out of his back, or the room filling with light that didn't seem to come from anywhere?

She had asked him when it happened. She did ask when exactly it happened. Draco had cast a tempus spell and told her that it must've been just after midnight. And there was that damned eyebrow again. The woman really should tell him what the hell was going on. When he had asked, she had only said that it was something he should ask his parents about. He really didn't see how his parents needed to get involved. He had obviously been drugged, or poisoned, or transfigured in someway as some sort of prank. If there were someone to bet with him, he would put money on it all being the result of something the Weasel twins had cooked up. They seemed like likely enough suspects. They hated him. They were clever enough at potions. And, most importantly, they had a childish obsession with pranking poor defenseless Slytherins.

"Well, if you are not going to tell me what's wrong with me, then at least give me something to make them go away. I can't exactly go to class like this." Draco said in a huffy voice.

"There's nothing I can possibly give you that will make your wings retract. It is something you will have to do on your own. Look, here is some parchment and a quill. When you're done writing a letter to your parents, you can use my personal owl to send it. You're welcome to wait here until you get a response." The witch said hopefully in a motherly way.

"Fine. If you insist. I will write my parents." Draco bit out angrily.

She stood there for a moment until he raised an eyebrow as if to say – are you just going to watch while I wright? – And then she left. Draco wrote. He wrote very angrily. He nearly stabbed through the parchment with his quill.

He decided to write to his mother. Somehow writing all of this to his father seemed… Unwise.

Mother,

Something rather strange happened to me at midnight last night. The room filled with light and wings popped out of my back. No reason to be alarmed. I assume it is simply a prank. The school nurse simply required me to write to inform you.

Hope the season is going well,  
Draco

He folded up the letter and sealed it. He stood up awkwardly off the bed unaccustomed to the weight of the wings. He walked over/stumbled over to Madam Pomphrey's office, and knocked on the door. She opened it almost immediately and took the letter from him. She held out her arm and a small black owl took flight from somewhere behind her desk and landed on her wrist. She handed the letter to him and opened her window. The small bird flew off into the distance. Shutting the window calmly she turned back to her student.

"Now, my dear, I would love to explain everything to you, but my hands are tied. The law says that this is something your parents have to tell you." She said and then looked as though she was deciding whether or not to say more. She decided that she better had. "They really ought to have told you before now. I can't imagine that sort of a surprise."

"What? Just tell me!" Draco said exasperatedly.

The nurse shook her head, "Fraid not, dear."

Draco was getting angrier and angrier by the minute. He kept clenching and unclenching his fist by his side. And then… He unclenched his fist and a small ball of fire shot towards the floor.

"What the hell?!"

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~ 


	4. Chapter 4: Narcisa comes to Hogwarts

Narcisa was walking down the corridors of Hogwarts school trying desperately to distract herself from how nervous she felt. She tried thinking about her school days, fond memories of her time spent with her girl friends before everything had gotten so complicated. It didn't work. Her happy thoughts would enevidably circle back around to the present and her son waiting for her in the hospital wing.

Narcisa Malfoy was a proper pureblood lady... a proper pureblood lady who was married to a man she loved, that could never love her back. She and Lucius had been friends since childhood. Their marriage had been arranged and magically bound before her birth. It was a political union that had given her father a seat on the Wizengamont. Or rather given him back the family seat that had been lost after her grandfather had been found to be a supporter of the Dark Lord Grindelwald. Either way, her marriage had insured the lessor Black line a seat in the governing body that was the ultimate authority in wizarding Britain.

What her marriage didn't assure her was a loving and devoted spouse. And today, it seemed she was going to feel the consequences of her lust-less marriage. Today she was going to explain to her son why wings had just popped out of his back.

She stood in front of the door to the hospital wing and took a deep breath. She knocked, and a moment or two later Poppy Pomphrey's disapproving face greeted her as the door slid open.

"You have a very confused and upset son waiting for you, Lady Malfoy. Bed six. I will be in my office." And with that, she left.

"Mother?" Came the voice of her son from six or seven meters down the hall.

"Draco..." Narcissa said cautiously as she walked over to his bed. Once she got past the curtain she could see the whole of her son. He had enormous dark scale covered wings. They were currently folded neatly behind his back, but unfurled they would be over six feet in span. She also did not fail to notice the scorch marks on the floor, the bed, and the curtain partitioning Draco's area from that of the next bed over.

"Madam Pomphery is insisting that I haven't been poisoned, but I believe it is just a prank. I had a lot to drink last night and someone must have slipped something into one of my drinks for a bit of a lark." Draco said from a deep pit of denial.

Narcissa ignored the admission of underage drinking, that was the least of her problems. "Draco, I had hoped to never have this conversation with you, but it seems fate is against me yet again. There is something I need to tell you about your father..."

"Father!? I have wings! And you want to chat about your latest fight with Father?"

"Draco, your father isn't... He isn't your... Your father is..." She hung her head. She took a deep breath and let the words tumble out. "I had an affair. I'm not proud of it and Lucius was very kind to raise you as his own and spare me the shame of publicly raising my love child alone-"

"What!" Fire shot out of both of his hands at the floor and his wings unfurled.

"Draco, calm down." Narcissa pleaded with her son.

Draco had no interest in calming down. He wanted this to all go away. He wanted the wings gone, the fire gone, and his nutter of a mother gone. He wanted everything to just... go back to normal. "Why are you telling me this!?" He screamed. Why was she? Did she think this was helping? Did she think he wanted to know that his mother had gone out and whored around? Did she think that he wanted to know he was a bastard?

She could tell that he wasn't listening. He was in his own head working himself into a fury. If she wasn't careful he would burn down the school. Or at least the hospital wing. She decided to be direct. "Draco! Your father was a Veela!"

Draco stopped pacing and stared at her slack jawed. "What?!" He screamed after a moment.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She closed her eyes and started to tell her story as calmly as she could. "I was young and in a loveless marriage. He was so handsome... "

Draco interrupted her with a hand held straight out, palm facing at her. "I don't need to hear that!" Draco gave her a look of discussed that she returned with a very serious look of her own. "I'm a Veela?!"

Finally, they were getting somewhere. She nodded slowly at her hysterical son. "Half Veela," she corrected him.

Draco started pacing around again. He had built most of his sense of self around the idea that he was a pureblood of the highest lineage. The Malfoy name was untarnishable in high society. Even his father's dalliances in the dark arts had done nothing to lower their reputation. It was all in the name. It was all in the blood. Now his mother was telling him that he wasn't a pureblood. He wasn't a Malfoy. He was the bastard son of a magical creature and a housewife who couldn't keep her legs together in front of a handsome face. Draco, impossible though it might seem, managed to make himself even angrier at his mother. This was all her fault after all. Shouldn't she have told him something this important when he was younger? And certainly before Wings sprouted out of his back! "And you waited until now to tell me?!"

Narcissa finally had the decency to look nervous again. Draco did not appreciate her calmness in the face of his anger. "Well...male half breed children only have a one in four chance of showing the outward characteristics." She said in an attempt to explain her reasoning. Honestly, she hoped that the numbers would be in her favor. She had hoped that they would never have had to have this conversation at all. It wasn't exactly putting her in a flattering light, telling her son about her affair.

Draco looked at her slack-jawed. "So you thought you would just wait and see if one day I popped out a set of wings?" He screamed pulling at the oversized scaly wings that were now unfurled and seemed to take up more space then was really reasonable.

She might as well tell him the next part, it wasn't likely he was capable of getting much angrier with her than he was now. It also helped that they were in a safe space. Draco was unlikely to risk killing her in the castle. "Well, yes. But I knew it would be at midnight at the end of your fifteenth birthday. That is when male Veela reach their magical maturity and start seeking a mate." She saw Draco's face turn fiery red. Fireballs shot out of his hands at the floor again. He was starting to ruin the tile. The floor beneath him was becoming chard.

"A what!" Draco screeched. He felt the blood surge to his head and heard a thumping noise in his ears. A Mate!?

"A mate." Narcissa said calmly with a nod of her head.

Draco opened his mouth and closed it several times, he threw his hands up in the air, and started pacing again. It was several minutes of furious silence before he turned to her accusingly with his arm stretched straight out and a long white finger pointed directly at her chest like a wand about to strike. "This is what all that rubbish with the marriage contract was about." He fumed.

Lady Malfoy remained perfectly calm and composed as she replied to her furious son. "Yes, I couldn't bind you to someone if you had a magically destined mate out there."

Draco was about to work himself up to a rant when suddenly the color drained from his face. "Oh Merlin! Blaise!" He started picking up his outer robe and tried desperately to put it on over his large wings, but to no avail.

Now she was the one surprised and confused. What in the world could possibly have made her son think of his classmate at a time like this? "Blaise? Lady Zabini's son? What would he have to do with this dear?"

Draco gave her a look that seemed to say, are you stupid? He wasn't going to hide something as trivial as his teenage relationship when there were obviously much larger issues at play. If she wanted to be upset that he had gotten romantically involved with someone before marriage, she had another thing coming before he was going to feel even remotely repentant considering what she had just admitted to having declined to tell him for so many years. "We have been dating."

She didn't want to believe it. She had been so careful in instructing Draco not to get involved with anyone before he turned 15 years old. "That's ridiculous, purebloods don't date."

This time, Draco's look seem to say, you have got to be kidding me. "Well, I'm not exactly a pureblood, am I?"

Narcissa thought to herself quickly, she could solve this. They were young, far too young for anything to have truly developed. The boy would understand, he would have to. "Well you are young, I doubt it has gone far enough to be an issue. He will understand."

Draco was done. He was done with his mother. He was done with this conversation. He was done. If she wanted him to throw away the most supportive relationship he had in his life, romantic or not, then he was done with her. Perhaps she was the kind of person who could cuckold her husband for a night of passion with a creature, but he was not so callous as to be willing to throw away whatever it was he had with Blaise. "Is there anything else I should know?"

She pulled out a stack of shrunken books from her purse and enlarged them."These should help."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were walking down the sloping hill towards Hagrid's cabin at the edge of the forbidden Forest on their way to Care of Magical Creatures class. The air was crisp and breezy. They felt the occasional drop of rain on the tops of their heads. A few droplets fell onto Harry's glasses and he had to remove them for a moment to dry them off.

Professor Grubbly-Plank, the substitute professor who was filling in for Hagrid, was standing a few yards away from the front door of Hagrid's cabin. In front of her was a long table, and on top of that table were many many twigs. Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy Parkinson we're following just behind them. Harry noticed that they were lacking there star player yet again. Where was Draco Malfoy?

"Everyone here?" barked Professor Grubbly-Plank, once all the Slytherins and Gryffindors had arrived. "Let's crack on then — who can tell me what these things are called?" She was gesturing to the twigs in front of her on the table. Just as Harry would have expected, Hermione's hand was immediately thrust into the air. Just as quickly the twigs that had moments ago and lain calmly on the table leapt into the air and revealed themselves to be tiny ferry like creatures made entirely of wood. Little men and women with knobby brown legs and knobby little arms.

"Oooooh!" said Parvati and Lavender, thoroughly irritating Harry enough to break him from his puzzlement as to where Draco had gotten off too. Honestly, Anyone would have thought that Hagrid never showed them impressive creatures; admittedly the flobberworms had been a bit dull, but the salamanders and hippogriffs had been interesting enough, and the Blast-Ended Skrewts perhaps too much so.

Care of Magical Creatures went on with out must incident, but Draco never showed up. The Golden Trio went on to Herbology where Harry was greeted by Luna Lovegood who upon seeing him, professed her belief in Harry's story regarding He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's return. Hermione was rather rude to her about it, but it was nice to know that he had some support. When they got into the greenhouse Ernie Macmillan had stepped up to him and offered his support as well.

That evening Harry had his first detention with Professor Umbridge. That night he stained his sheets with blood from his fresh wound on his hand. The next evening however he noticed that the sheets were no longer stained. Thank Merlin for houselves.


End file.
